There have been a lot of oohs and aahs regarding chatGPT’s ability to generate code recently. The feeling I get is that there is something profound happening here. At the same time, the experience is a bit like trying to have a rational discussion inside a dream. Coherence is not guaranteed :) From time to time you will get compilation errors, but if you point out the error - ChatGPT will politely apologize and then suggest a way to correct the error.

Back in 2012, I designed and 3D printed a desktop modular coil gun. I made a video of the build at the time and published it on YouTube, so I could share it with friends. The coil gun ended up on my shelf and I moved on to the next project. Looking back, I see that this particular video has gotten quite a few views since then. I have received a few requests for design details since then, many of which I haven’t responded to yet (I guess 9 years latency is pushing it a bit, but hey, I’ve been busy!

I love watching robot competitions. It doesn’t matter if it is sumo robots, line followers, boxing bipeds or the more familiar Robot Wars / BattleBot combat tournaments. I still remember being blown away by the robots in the first episodes of BBC Robot Wars when it aired back in the late nineties. It’s incredibly fun to watch these proxy battles of the minds, but I imagine that it would be even more fun to participate, especially in the heavyweight classes.

I have been making nixie clocks for some time now. I still have hundreds of various nixie tubes and dekatrons in my inventory, but I feel like taking a timeout from the clock projects for a while now and maybe focus on something else. I have tons of project ideas written down in my TODO list. Unfortunately, I don’t have an infinite amount of available time for these projects, so I will have to prioritize a bit.

A friend and colleague of mine handed me a LilyGo T5 a couple of months back (We sometimes trade electronics “overstock” resulting from getting over-excited during late night shopping sprees on AliExpress). I stuffed the T5 into my bag and mostly forgot about it until a few days ago. The device is marketed as a digital price tag, but since it has a capable onboard microcontroller (ESP32), SD card support, an E ink display along with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, you can use it for so much more.